Influence of girls‘ expressiveness and nonverbal communication towards peers on their social functioning during ontogenesis (19-17540S)
Basic information
Investigator: doc. Mgr. et Mgr. Jitka Lindová, Ph.D.
Main recipient: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Research period: 1/1/2019 - 30/6/2022
Total budget: 4,640,000 CZK
Supported by: Czech Science Foundation (GAČR)
Annotation
Female social functioning throughout all life is influenced by their nonverbal communication skills. The ontogeny of nonverbal expressiveness and regulation in females is an understudied topic. Cross-sex peer interaction could be an informative source regarding communication skills relevant for adult relationship functioning. The strong association between nonverbal communication skills and social functioning in relationships might be distorted by the common use of social networking sites, which offer additional opportunities to initiate relationships, and do not require (allow limited) nonverbal signaling to be used during communication. We will approach this topic using a) observation of group dynamics and social networks in school classes, b) laboratory testing of girls’/women’s interactions with an unfamiliar opposite-sex peer and c) rating of nonverbal behavior of girls/women projected on computer avatars using motion capture. We will compare female behavior in 6 age cohorts from 5 to 25 years, and seek for association of nonverbal behavior with online social networking.